Tourism

Last updated: Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Great Leaps of Tourism Industry

Posted: Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Over the 20 years since its re-establishment, Quang Nam province has made spectacular breakthroughs in the tourism industry, based on advantageous natural resources, two World Heritage sites (My Son Sanctuary and Hoi An Ancient Town) and on the unity and consensus of the Party, the government and people of the province. Mr Ho Tan Cuong, Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that with these strengths, Quang Nam is trying to turn tourism into a truly important economic sector, and attract more and more investors and tourists to the province. Cong Luan reports.

Could you tell us about changes in Quang Nam tourism over the past 20 years?

Quang Nam is the only province that has two UNESCO-recognised world cultural heritages: My Son Sanctuary and Hoi An Ancient Town. In addition, the sea and islands of Quang Nam are also an important magnet to tourists, including the Cu Lao Cham World Biosphere Reserve and a 125-km coastline with many scenic beaches like Ha My, Cua Dai, Binh Minh, Tam Thanh, Ky Ha and Bai Rang.

The Quang Nam culture is very diverse because of exchanges with Champa, Chinese, Japanese cultures and others in the past, thus creating many tourist destinations. Picturesque scenes are seen all over the province, from coastal plains to midlands and high mountains. All these factors lead to the diversity of tourism and appeal to visitors.

Not only being famous for its natural and cultural heritages, Quang Nam is also home to intangible cultural values, including many special festivals such as Cau Bong Festival, Thu Bon Festival and Long Chu Festival. Many cultural and tourism events are regularly organised to draw the participation of thousands of domestic and international guests. Quang Nam is also home to hundreds of traditional handicraft villages, such as Kim Bong carpentry village, Ma Chau textile village, Tra Que vegetable village and Thanh Ha pottery village.

In the past time, the province has made great efforts to invest in tourism infrastructure to gradually raise the quality of technical facilities and the quality of labour force while promoting tourism and developing tourism products, thus creating Quang Nam brand tourism, with remarkable products being Hoi An Ancient Town and My Son Sanctuary. This is the basis for Quang Nam to draw more domestic and international tourists to the locality.

In 20 years since re-establishment, Quang Nam has made spectacular breakthroughs in the tourism sector, positively contributing to local socioeconomic development. Tourist arrivals increased 24 times, from 227,000 in 1997 to 5.3 million in 2017, representing an average annual growth of 17.1 per cent. With about 52 per cent of international tourists, Quang Nam has become one of the most attractive destinations for international tourists in Vietnam. Tourism revenue rose 190 times, from VND20 billion to VND3,860 billion, an annual average growth of 30.3 per cent. By the end of 2017, the province employed more than 13,000 tourism workers, 36.6 times that of 1997. In 2017, the tourism sector contributed 8.5 per cent to the province’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP).

Could you share about investment in tourism infrastructure development?

Over the years, Quang Nam has given priority to tourism infrastructure investment. In 2007 - 2017, the province built many roads linking to tourist sites and destinations, funded by government bonds and local funds. Heroic Vietnamese Mother Monument, Cua Dai Bridge and the coastal road linking Da Nang - Hoi An to the east of Quang Nam are great opportunities to attract investors and promote high-class resort development along coastal Duy Xuyen, Thang Binh, Tam Ky and Nui Thanh. Some traffic routes linking to tourist sites have also been upgraded to facilitate travel companies to bring tourists to the province.

Hoi An tourism development master plans to 2015 and to 2020, Phu Ninh Lake region planning, and local tourism development projects are still under way. In addition, other major tourism plans were approved, including the project for preservation and promotion of values of My Son tourist site in 2008 - 2020; the master investment plan for conservation, restoration and promotion of Hoi An World Cultural Heritage to 2020 and to 2030; and the master plan for conservation, restoration and promotion of historical values of Nuoc Oa revolutionary relic.

Also in 2007 - 2017, many large and high-quality domestic and foreign investment projects were put into operation to create new faces and improve tourism service quality.

In addition to tourism infrastructure development investment, how has the province cooperated in tourism with other localities in the region?

As a favourite destination for many international tourists, Quang Nam has the opportunity to boost tourism cooperation promotion with provinces and cities. In fact, we not only promote tourism on our own but also introduce Vietnam’s cultural and natural heritages at its “Quang Nam - Heritage Itinerary” events. On the other hand, Quang Nam also regularly participates in major cultural and tourism events in other localities and contributes to drawing the tourism picture of Vietnam.

However, tourism cooperation is now only limited to working together but also contributing funds to carry out promotional domestic and foreign activities. Localities should have close cooperation with each other in major cultural tourism events while creating opportunities to boost the image of other localities and enabling visitors to have richer and deeper experiences in central Vietnam. Hue Festival, Da Nang International Fireworks Competition, Quang Nam Heritage Festival and other remarkable events should be connected to other destinations in the central region.

Tourists go to Vietnam because they love the beauty of this country and world-honoured destinations. They do not need to know what Quang Binh, Quang Nam or Quang Tri is. So, does each province need to invest in building its own tourism brand to make Vietnam hard to be remembered by tourists with so many destinations? I think that it will be much more reasonable and effective if we stand in the position of tourists. We should eliminate administrative tourism boundaries to make unique products and impressive brands of Vietnam's tourism honoured and well-known on regional and global tourism maps.